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“A movie can be art but it’s difficult in Hollywood, especially in these times because we are all facing financial problems and no-one wants to take any risks.

“Latin Americans have disappeared from the movies. We are seen on TV, but we are not seen as much as we used to be seen.”

Fortunately, television does not play second fiddle to the movies any more. “At one time, if you were an actor in plays, you didn’t go to TV. But now it’s the opposite – TV is like the theatre, it’s taking risks. Look at Mad Men and Breaking Bad. They’re incredible and everyone rushes home to see these shows.

“Hollywood movies have no soul. They don’t have the human spirit. Hollywood isn’t doing that now, it’s usually only low budget films.”

Leguizamo moved to New York with his family when he was three, and began studying acting at 17.

He joked that the only roles offered to him were “rapists and drug traffickers” so he responded by writing his own play, which was an off-Broadway hit, and plying his trade as a stand-up comedian.

Leguizamo said he honed his comedy skills growing up in a tough New York neighbourhood.

“It was an area of Jackson Heights now called Little Colombia but when I arrived it was like a frontier – we were the second Latino family there, the other was Mexican,” he recalled.

“It was tough. There were lots of fights. I would walk through a park and be attacked, and I had to defend myself all the time. But this helped me to become funny so that I wouldn’t get hit.”

Speaking on the opening day of the Hay festival, Leguizamo shared his views about politics in Hollywood.

Republican supporters are few and far between, he said.

“Most actors, scriptwriters and film directors are intellectually able people, they are artists, they are sensitive. So most of us are Democrats – except Arnold Schwarzenegger.”